Ashland FFA celebrates year with banquet

Jarred Opatz Published: April 21, 2007 4:00 AM

The Ashland FFA chapter presented awards during its 78th annual awards banquet April 9 at the school campus.The meal for 140 members and guests was served in the Ashland High School cafeteria by Celebrations by Sallie! following the invocation by Brooke Wesner. Sarah Bahntge called for recognition and appreciation of the meal served by Celebrations by Sallie! The group immediately dismissed to the Little Theatre for the remainder of the program.There, David Hinkle, fath-er of the chapter president, introduced the officer team as they entered the theater as president, Samantha Hinkle; vice president, Lisa Bantz; secretary, Tristan Shaffer; treasurer, Jacob Carpenter; reporter, Bahntge; sentinel, Wesner; student adviser, Tim Gibson; and historian, Heidi Gordon. Each took their position behind their station markers and proceeded with the official FFA Opening Ceremony. Hinkle, serving as program toastmaster called Bantz to the front who delivered the welcome to those attending. She then called Ashland FFA Alumni member Cathy Bishop to the front to give the evening response on behalf of all the adults in the audience. Bishop mentioned some of the highlights of the past year and listed the general livestock team's national participation in Indianapolis and the meat team's competition in the Denver National and the Buckeye Invitational at Ohio State University. She also listed the $5,000-plus worth of agricultural scholarships won by Ashland FFA members during the year in the areas of meats and dairy foods. She urged continued support by alumni and parents for the agriculture students in their agricultural endeavors.Wesner introduced the guests for the evening, followed by the official FFA Creed presentation by Robyn Lump, daughter of Dave and Peggy Lump; John Slarb, son of Dan and Paula Slarb; and Beth Wertz, daughter of Mark and Andrea Wertz. Lump was this year's chapter speaker in the area of creed. The FFA Creed was written by E.M. Tiffany in 1930 and has been delivered by members since that time.Gibson was the presenter of the Ashland County Fair report and commended Hinkle, Bantz, Shaffer, Wesner, Bahntge, Tory Stauffer, Carpenter and Gordon for their work on the 2006 Ashland FFA educational booth, which focused on highlights of the chapter activities of the year. He also mentioned the vegetable-type display set up in the crops building by Darlene Schuck and company. Gibson also recognized FFA members for more than 215 still projects in shop, hay, grain, corn and soybeans. Then he recognized those who exhibited market hogs, market lambs, market steers, baby beef, breeding sheep, feeder steers, horses, chickens, turkeys, broilers, rabbits and goats. Gibson gave a special thank you to those who served as Junior Fair Board members -- Bahntge, Bantz, Shaffer, Hinkle and Brian Ashbrook.Fund-raisersCarpenter presented the citrus report. He thanked the members who sold and the parents who purchased and assisted with deliveries of the citrus, apples, fruit baskets and jerkey sales. This is the main chapter fund-raising event for the year conducted by the active members. Doug and Jessica Kirkpatrick are the co-coordinators of the alumni Christmas tree sale at the Buehler's lot where trees are sold which are raised by Twinsberry Christmas Tree Farm from Shreve. The income helps pay a portion of the members' state and national FFA convention expenses. This year, sales were up slightly from the previous year.The FFA Toy Show co-coordinators are Rick and Marty Shoup who organize the event and work the entire year to communicate to those involved. Exhibitors come from several states to attend one of Ohio's premier shows of this kind. Without the efforts of the Shoups, the show could not continue its success. More than 80 attended the 2006 show. Also important to the funding of the chapter is the Alumni Invitational Judging contest which attracted more than 1,000 contestants to the 2007 event that hosted eight career development events. Carpenter called all the member sellers in each category and concluded by naming Phillip Hess as the top salesman of the 2006-07 year. Carpenter thanked everyone for their support of the chapter's fund-raising activities and also mentioned the recent involvement of Mike Goschinski of Fin Feather Fur for his financial support of members.Awards, teamsGordon introduced David Bishop, alumni representative for comments and award presentation assistance. Bishop gave a special thanks to all the Ashland FFA Alumni and parents who have assisted the active members in their agricultural activities. He mentioned the numerous hours of voluntary help donated on behalf of the agriculture students from all parts of Ohio as well as Ashland. Terry Swaisgood, Maxine Swaisgood, Dan Stone, Kenny Schuck, Darlene Schuck, Cathy Bishop, Sarah Bishop, David Bishop and Harold Brown are alumni members who helped supervise, operate and judge many of the state contests. David Bishop serves on the National Meat Committee and Stone serves as an assistant to the National Farm Business Management Committee. Maxine Swaisgood, Stone and Mike Stitzlein chaperoned the members and team participants at the National FFA Convention. Stitzlein assisted the livestock team in coaching them through the event.Shaffer presented the cooperative education career development event and called coach and FFAadviser Dave Snyder for team presentations. The first-place cooperative education state team consisted of Stephanie Litten, first place; Amanda Martin, fourth place; Jacob Brown, fifth place; and Amber Stumbaugh, sixth place. Others competing were Carpenter, eighth; Matt Goschinski, ninth; Bahntge, 10th; and Joe Vaughn, 39th.Bantz introduced and described the dairy foods CDE then Snyder introduced this year's first-place state-winning team that will represent Ohio in the event at Indianapolis this coming October. Stephen Plank earned the first-place state championship along with Bahntge, fourth; Gibson, eighth; and Christina Hosler, 10th. Others competing were Lump, 17th, and Slarb, 29th. Plank earned a $3,000 scholarship and Bahntge earned $400 for their placing in the contest.Bahntge presented the general livestock contest preview and called Stitzlein, the coach, to the front. Stitzlein then commented on the youth of this year's team that competed in state competition and introduced the team members: Evan Long, who was 181st individually; Ka-leena Armstrong, 526th; and Beth Wertz, 528th.Stitzlein then introduced the team that competed in national competition last fall and earned a silver rating. The individuals on the team were Litten, Brown and Stauffer, who placed silver individually, with Carpenter placing bronze. The team members and Stitzlein were presented photo plaques and T-shirts with the wording 2006 National Livestock Judging Team. Stitzlein also mentioned the changes the contest will experience when oral reasons may be used on the three species in the 2008 state contest.Ashbrook presented the Greenhand quiz and introduced the seventh-place team in Ohio of Amber Fruth, 32nd; Cally Slabaugh, 33rd; Cody Moore, 53rd; and Stauffer, 86th. A new team of this year's ag. science I students will compete in the 2007 CDE at the state convention in May.Stauffer presented the criteria of the meat contest. David Bishop presented the state competing team of 2006 that placed second in Ohio. They were: Bantz, who was ninth individually in the state; Courtney Kirkpatrick, 10th; Shaffer, 11th; and Hinkle, 15th. Others competing in the event were Litten, who was 20th; and Wesner, 22nd. Bantz, Wesner, Hinkle and Shaffer will compete in May for the present year. For their high placing last spring at state, the team also went to the Denver National Show, where it placed fourth as a honor.Beth Wertz presented the soils competition participants in rural soils -- Ashbrook, Carpenter, Stauffer and Wesner. In urban soils, Charity Armstrong, Bryan Denny, Karri Shireman and Kenny Stanford competed.Special honorsLump announced the American Degree winners for the year who will receive their degrees at the National FFA Convention in October in Indianapolis. This is the highest degree awarded to a member in the organization. The degree recipients are Brown, son of Mr. and Mrs. Scot Brown; Katy Coblentz, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Miller; and Litten, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Barry Litten.David Bishop announced the annual outstanding member awards for the 2006-07 school year. They were Star Greenhand, Wertz; Star Sophomore, Stauffer; Star Juniors, Carpenter and Gibson; Star Chapter member, Bantz; and DeKalb winner, Hinkle. The FFA issued three scholarships of $300 to Hinkle for the Steve Wertz Memorial scholarship, $150 to Bantz and Shaffer for the George Krill Memorial Scholarship. The two new Ashland FFA Alumni Lifetime memberships were presented to Hinkle and Goschinski.The Honorary Degree ceremony was conducted by the Ashland FFA officer team to initiate Mr and Mrs. David Hinkle, Jessica Kirkpatrick and Mike Goschinski into honorary membership in the Ashland FFA. The graduating seniors then introduced and presented potted flowers to their parents. The parents were David and Ronda Hinkle, parents of Samantha; Larry and Rona Bantz, parents of Lisa; Dean and Lana Mishey, parents of Tristan Shaffer; Marty and Jenney Wesner, parents of Brooke; Tom and Pat Gordon, parents of Heidi; Cheryl Ashbrook, mother of Brian; and Hal and Jane Bahntge, parents of Sarah.Snyder was presented an Ohio State cap and a framed photo of the senior agriculture students. He then thanked all the parents, alumni and supporters of the FFA for a highly successful year, noting the more than $6,000 worth of scholarships the ag students were awarded for their dedicated efforts during the past year. This was followed by the officer installation of the 2007-08 Ashland FFA officer team consisting of Carpenter, president; Stauffer, vice president; Wertz, secretary; Armstrong, treasurer; Lump, reporter; Gibson, sentinel; and Plank, student adviser. The retiring team then took its place in the audience with Carpenter making some closing comments on the success of the outgoing officer team and Hinkle, its president. Carpenter then conducted the closing ceremonies with his new officer team. Then he made some final announcements and thanked all for attending.The 2007 banquet was closed with the annual slide show, "Our Year in Review."